Mother and Child represents a theme that Mary Cassatt often painted throughout her career
as an artist. Creating complex, impressionistic lighting effects,
a floor mirror reflects the scene in a hazy, indistinct manner.

The models for Mother and Child may have been neighbors of Cassatt's near her country home
outside of Paris. She often asked local women to sit for
her, feeling that professional models posed self-consciously. For the sittings, Cassatt tended to dress
the women in gowns she had bought from well-known Paris clothiers. As in most of her paintings, Cassatt
does not glamorize or sentimentalize her subjects; instead she presents them as wholesome, attractive
individuals.

When Cassatt painted Mother and Child she was at the height of her artistic success.
She drew on her many years of experience, working with ease and assurance. She captured the varying
effects of light: pure strokes of green and gold suggest the sun flooding the artist's studio on a
summer day, and glistening touches of pale yellow highlight hair, dress, and furniture.